Happy...Merry...New Year...it is a combo post of a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year post...kind of like a tur-duck-en ;). I didn't do a great job of capturing the whole holiday but these are the highlights.
Thanksgiving...
I joke that people tour Europe for a week but we decided to tour Arkansas for a week! But we were so happy to be there! The trip was packed with family time, time with friends, a football game, a fabulous party for great friends and the actual Thanksgiving holiday of course :). We started in Morrilton to visit Kevin's family and scratch our itch for a football game (we went to the Mississippi State game in Little Rock). From there we headed to Fayetteville to catch up with our friends and meet our newest little friend, Alex Fletcher (such a doll baby!). On Wednesday before Thanksgiving we made our way to Texarkana where we stayed until Sunday. My mom's side of the family came to Texarkana to spend the day and we had a house full! It was so fun having all of my cousins with us AND their kids, Arden tried to keep up with the big girls all day long. Saturday night we went to a party celebrating Susan and Jimmy's marriage - it was a really fun party and I loved seeing my gal Susan plus all of our family friends that we miss so much in Arkansas!
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| {Fayetteville Square after dinner with the Oliver's and Doug and Mary Beth} |
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| {Arden, Kevin and Leah Kate...these girls are obsessed with each other and I love it!} |
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| {A carriage ride} |
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| {Arden and Leah Kate} |
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| {Thanksgiving Day. My parents and their neighbors rented a bounce house for a few days and our crew took full advantage of it. Uncle Marc was a super trooper and spent a LOT of time in the bounce house trying to organize the chaos of the kids. And I must say he did a great job! They all minded him and he made sure everyone took turns so that no one would get hurt. He lifted Arden onto the slide EVERY time it was her turn, and she took a lot of turns!} |
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| {As you can see the top of the slide-bottom of the slide-back to the top of the slide cycle happened many, many times. She thought it was the. best. thing. ever} |
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| {A little tired after the bounce house} |
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| {My Grandmother and her 6 great-grandchildren...5 girls and 1 boy!} |
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| {Nathan was crawling all over the place so of course Arden wanted to crawl too!} |
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| {Sweet, happy Nathan} |
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| {Again...crawling everywhere!} |
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| {Chambers Family Pic} |
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| {My cousin's daughter Jennifer and Arden...Arden was her shadow all day long!} |
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| {Feeding the ducks} |
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| {Duke...water dog is an understatement} |
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| {I really wish I could have heard this conversation!} |
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| {Arden finally warming up to Duke and throwing the ball for him. Thanks Uncle Doug for being so patient with Arden helping her play with Duke!} |
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| {Arden trying to keep up with the big girls during a race} |
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| {And back at the bounce house, with Uncle Marc!} |
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| {We were so excited to see the Roark's while we were in Texarkana! Ryder and Arden hanging out watching The Backyardigans...these two are totally meant to be!} |
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| {We love these boys!} |
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| {We got out Mom's Christmas decorations and Arden thought this Santa was her buddy... he was just her size!} |
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{Dear Santa, I've been good I promise!}
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Christmas....
We got to celebrate Christmas 3 times!! Arden must have been a very good girl this year because she got so many fun things! Kevin's family came to New Jersey a few weeks before Christmas so we could celebrate with them. It was a great trip! We even went into NYC for a Canal Street shopping trip, dinner and a visit to the tree at Rockefeller Center.
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| {Gran and Poppy gave Arden a Cozy Coupe car with trailer...she tries to drive it around inside so she can't get far but once we are back playing on the driveway this Spring she will be all over the place!} |
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| {Carpool! The Backyardigan characters are in the back} |
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| {Little Italy...love the lights!} |
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| {The tree at Rockefeller Center} |
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| {While walking around the tree we saw this proposal! } |
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| {It was COLD! Arden is all bundled up in the stroller under the blankets} |
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| {Shipp family pic!} |
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| {Times Square} |
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{The ABC jumbotron on Times Square was showing the Heisman Trophy presentation live. This was before they announced RGIII as the winner}
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| {A few days before Christmas we let Arden open her gift from Uncle Doug and Aunt Mary Beth...she loves it! It is a cute pink poodle that you bounce on. She calls it "ride the pony"} |
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| {The best attempt of a picture of Arden in front of the tree...as you can see she is thrilled} |
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| {Christmas Eve} |
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| {Christmas Eve} |
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{Christmas pajama pic}
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| {Christmas morning...Santa brought Arden a slide...she was so cute when she saw it, she gave a dramatic gasp and said "oh boy!" then all day she said "i slide!"} |
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| {Arden got a real digital camera for Christmas - a kids version - and she loves it. She points the camera at someone or something and says "i take picture" and then says "cheese!" and when she is finished taking the picture she says "good job!" - think she has heard that before ;)?!} |
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| {I kept asking to take her picture and she would hold the camera up to her face to take a picture of me taking a picture of her...} |
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| {Our little photographer at work} |
Santa also brought Arden a baby bed (you can see in the background), a Cabbage Patch baby "Kelsey Amy"and a foam play mat that will go under the slide when we move it to the basement play area.
After New Year's my parents came to visit! As always it was a lot of fun and we were so sad to say goodbye when the trip was over (Arden and I in tears as usual!). We watched a few of the bowl games, including the Cotton Bowl and the National Championship game, visited Hoboken for lunch one day, went to NYC for dinner and a broadway show (sans Arden) and went to visit the Princeton campus. Plus we got to celebrate our 3rd Christmas!
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| {Christmas #3 - opening a gift from Mimi and Paps} |
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| {Puzzles! Arden loves puzzles and the one with instruments plays music} |
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| {Mimi and Paps also gave Arden a pink tricycle - SUPER cute!} |
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| {Lance Armstrong in training! But I bet his bike doesn't have a cool bell ;)} |
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{Arden isn't quite tall enough to ride yet but she still likes to try, she will grab your hand and walk you to her tricycle and say "i ride my bike!" which translates to "push me around please!" But by the Spring she will be riding away from us! }
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| {Paps and Mimi with Arden. This picture makes me smile because Arden was so happy with them and put her arm around Mimi since she had one arm around Paps!} |
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| {Princeton campus...we went on a cold but sunny day so we took a quick walk through campus, it is beautiful!!} |
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| {Lots and lots of arches throughout the campus...this led to a courtyard with old stained glass windows that looked into the courtyard from inside the building} |
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| {Arden is buried under the blankets again!} |
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{Kevin joked at lunch that we were giving Arden a tour of her future school that Paps would be paying for ;)}
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Our New Year's Eve was VERY quiet. Just the three of us! We watched football (we will be going through withdrawals from not having football on the TV once the NFL is over), cooked dinner and relaxed at home. Arden did give us a little scare - she had an allergic reaction to lobster. I realize most 2 year olds don't know if they are allergic to lobster at that age because they don't eat it but Arden got VERY brave and wanted to try the lobster bisque Kevin and I were eating. She is a SUPER picky eater and never wants to try anything new so we really don't tell her no if she asks if she can have something...we may rethink that theory! Within seconds she started complaining "my chin! my chin" and it was red and she was scratching it every chance she got. From her chin you could see the redness and irritation move up her face until her eye got red but she never had any trouble breathing and didn't have any swelling so we treated her with Benadryl and it seemed to clear it up almost right away. We watched her super close to make sure all of the redness and irritation went away before she went to sleep and to be on the safe side she slept in our bed (which has only happened a handful of times, and she was probably so young she doesn't even remember!) so we could check on her through the night. I did talk to her Pediatrician about it and we are now scheduled to see an Allergist in a few weeks for a consultation. Arden also had an ear infection over the holiday break. It was our first experience of her being able to tell us her ear hurt, it is such a nice feeling to know she is getting to the age to be able to tell you what is wrong! Even with those two instances of her not feeling her best we had a great time and got to spend lots of time together just the three of us. Going back to work was so hard!
We hope this year brings you and your family many blessings and much happiness!
Hugs,
Hillary
